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Ecological well-being performance (EWP) is gaining power in an era where environmental sustainability is more important than ever. This novel metric is revolutionizing our understanding of the state of our ecosystems and the effects of human activity on the environment. By combining community feedback and scientific data, EWP seeks to present a comprehensive picture of ecological health and produce insights that may be used to inform resource management and policy decisions. Gaining an understanding of and improving upon EWP has become crucial as governments, corporations and communities work toward sustainable development.

The majority of material, people, transportation and information flows produced by urban activities “are carried by infrastructure. Renowned primatologist and environmentalist Jane Goodall asserts that our health is inextricably linked to the health of the planet.” EWP provides a means of measuring this connection and directing us toward more environment-friendly behaviors. Ecological weighting (EWP) is a comprehensive metric used to assess the sustainability and health of ecosystems. Economist Jeffrey Sachs states that “creative approaches to development that respect and enhance natural systems are necessary to achieve high EWP scores.” Although a major obstacle still remains in striking a balance between ecological protection and economic development. According to a recent study of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), areas with higher EWP ratings typically have more resilient ecosystems that can support a variety of species as well as human populations. 

Using metrics from the HDI, which are regarded as globally authoritative, proved more persuasive when calculating the output of residential well-being. Even China’s most developed areas such as Guangdong, Shanghai and Beijing did not have the best EWP values. In the context of Nepal, this situation cannot even be imagined. It is not impossible if the politics of Nepal will be stable and the government will think about this aspect during the overall development and make that dream come true. It will definitely take a few years (decades even), it will be possible, otherwise we as citizens should wake up. Sometimes we have to know the way to the village that we never go to. So together, the six ecological input categories offer a thorough knowledge of human consumption trends and the effects they have on the ecosystem.

EWP is measured by employing a collection of metrics to evaluate the sustainability and overall health of ecosystems. These indicators shed light on a number of environmental factors, including pollution levels, resource usage and biodiversity. Here are some important metrics that are frequently used to assess EWP, along with explanation:

Biodiversity: It is the variety of life on Earth, including species diversity, genetic variation and ecosystems. It supports ecosystem resilience, provides essential services and is crucial for maintaining the health of the planet. Purvis, A, & Hector, A concluded that high species richness indicates a healthy, resilient ecosystem.

Habitat quality: Foley, J A, DeFries, R, Asner, G P, et al. stated that a decrease in natural habitat area signifies ecological degradation, the partition of ecosystems into separate, smaller areas. ‘Fragmented habitats support fewer species and are more vulnerable to environmental changes’, Haddad et al. wrote in their research article. 

Water quality: This actually means concentrations of nutrients in water bodies, according to Smith, V H, Tilman, G D, & Nekola, J C. Excess nutrients can lead to eutrophication, harming aquatic life. Also note what Bilotta & Brazier’s have to say: high turbidity can indicate pollution and poor water quality.

Air quality: The concentration of air pollutants such as PM2.5, NO2 and SO2 refers to the levels of these harmful substances in the air. Kampa, M, & Castanas, E also noted that poor air quality affects both human health and ecological well-being.

Soil health: The amount of organic material in soil, known as Soil Organic Matter (SOM), is crucial for maintaining soil fertility and supporting ecosystem productivity. This is the conclusion of Lal R. Per Pimentel D, the rate at which soil is lost due to wind or water, known as soil erosion, is a key indicator of land degradation and reduced soil quality.

Resource use: According to Foley, J A, Ramankutty, N, Brauman, K A. et al, the amount of water used per unit of agricultural or industrial output is a critical measure, with efficient water use indicating sustainable resource management.

Energy consumption: Biodiversity is the variety of life on Earth, essential for ecosystem health, resilience and providing crucial services like pollination, climate regulation and resources.

Waste management: Karak, T, Bhagat, R M, & Bhattacharyya, P argued that a high proportion of waste being recycled minimizes landfill usage and reduces the need for resource extraction.

Waste generation: In Hoornweg & Bhada-Tata’s opinion, lower per capita waste generation reflects efficient resource use and promotes sustainable consumption patterns.

Conclusion: The State of the Environment Performance is a guiding concept for a sustainable future rather than just a measurement. EWP gives us the ability to make decisions that are beneficial to the environment and people by offering a holistic perspective on ecological health. Adopting EWP can ensure that our choices result in a resilient and prosperous world for future generations, even as environmental problems continue.

The author is president of Forum of Development Journalists’ (FoDeJ), Nepal. Views are personal

This piece is an exercise at connecting the dots and at making some assumptions of situations that have recently occurred that, though apparently unrelated, could be linked to the same thread. I am also, quite boldly, attempting to formulate some theories of Let’s start with the most banal, perhaps frivolous of all these facts. It is about the recent qualification game for the AFC Challenge League played by the Bhutanese side Paro FC against the Nepal’s Martyrs Memorial A-Division League champions Church Boys. 

Just a day before the game, the Japanese football star, now semi-retired, Keisuke Honda, playing for the Bhutanese’s side, lamented, ironically, about the miserable conditions of the football pitch assigned to his team for one of the pre-game training sessions. 

It so happened that, while the team reached the Bhadrakali football ground, workers were still mowing the grass. It is rumored that Honda, used to the highest standards of football after a strong career with some of the most renown European clubs, had said “Is this a joke?”, expecting that such preparatory work like cutting the grass would be done well in advance. 

A day later, I was with a group of youths I have been working with, all smart young students committed to doing good in the society. They are all nice and serious about their work and together we are working in a new dimension of human rights. One of them, mentioning the embarrassing moment, said, ironically, something like the following: “Another track record for Nepal!”. 

In the end, the pitiful conditions of the main pitch of the Dasharath stadium also brought humiliation for the whole country.

The following day we had scheduled an important meeting with a key stakeholder, something we had been trying to schedule for almost two months. It was decided by the group to meet one hour before the meeting to discuss and finalize a few points in the agenda to be discussed. I was running twenty minutes late and I tried my best to inform everyone. 

All the team arrived much later than me and the person who had made the comment on Honda’s amazement about the country’s preparedness to host an international game was the last to arrive and I had to wait outside the office for him even if our official meeting had already started. To me this was also a small embarrassment.
Tragic accidents take place all too often on the country’s roads. 

For example, it is a catastrophic occurrence that buses fall down ravines or, just over a month ago, two buses were hit by landslide on the Mugling-Narayangadh section of the highway during a night trip through a road that should have been precautionary closed. 

When these incidents happen, we hear the usual blames like lack of rules or non-compliance with existing regulations, be they in terms of allowing old vehicles on the road or the lack of common sense on the part of those who drive recklessly. But I am wondering if instead, on the top of an utter disregard for these fundamental laws of the road, the problem is wider and much more systemic than what we might think. The assumption I am daring to make in this column is that many of the challenges affecting the country are due to factors related to the sphere of personal behavior.

Yes, while there is often a lack of appreciation for regulations and laws, such disregard is more a symptom rather than the cause of all these problems.

As we know, putting all these situations together does not only affect the image of the country but also hits the confidence that the people have in their own country. Even we could say that the whole performance as a society is negatively affected. 

What I am talking about instead is that at the bottom, there is a combination of factors that do affect people’s performances and as consequence have a serious impact at societal level. It is not just about small embarrassments per se like the one related to a football pitch’s conditions, these are things that could be easily shrugged off. But, starting from small things, literally speaking minutiae to much more serious affairs, gigantic impacts at system level might come as a result. 

My theory is this: The lack of attention to details combined with a tendency to downplay our own responsibilities while blaming others can bring appalling effects. If you think about road accidents, it is almost a miracle that the country’s roads do not see more lethal accidents. 

On a recent journey to Jorpati, I saw the nonchalant attitude at not observing the undivided line that separates the two senses of direction. To be clear, I am also not immune to some responsibilities as I often ignore some of the most basic traffic rules while I drive like a crazy bicyclist. 

In short, small matters do matter a lot and, taken together, we get the country about which so many people complain about. This is also related to the general (mine included) attitudes related to punctuality. Most of the people, obviously not all, do not bother much about arriving on time. In a scenario where everybody has the same approach, well, there is no big impact as a meeting simply will start later but what if the same tardiness is also applied for other, much more important issues or tasks? 

It is also about personal accountability because people might tend not to care as much as they should in situations where their actions can make a difference, even a small one, if implemented. And to me personal accountability is a big deal because without it, we will hardly have the tons of personal leadership that an ambitious but still developing nation requires to advance and progress. There is a clear link between the two and the former is a sort of precondition to the latter without which nothing can happen. It might be that one of the problems is that leadership in a cultural setting like the one existing in the whole of South Asia and perhaps beyond is always understood in terms of authority. 

This is a misconception because equating leadership to power and personal authority is one of the best ways of disempowering and disenfranchising people from assuming their responsibilities. The end results can vary: it can bring to being late in a meeting or being late at mowing a pitch. But it could also bring to delaying till last minute important tasks and, by the way, it can also lead to a lack of competitive performances at the highest levels of the sports.

Such an approach, tragically, could also lead to preventable deaths on the road. That’s why it is important to work at a behavioral level when we try to fix the most common problems, either the small or big ones. Without such effort, even the stringiest regulations might fail to have an impact and we all know the consequences. 

Finally, do not forget that details matter a lot!

Views are personal

HIV is a retrovirus that targets the immune system and, if untreated, can cause AIDS. It is spread by bodily fluids such as blood, semen, vaginal fluids, rectal fluids and breast milk from an individual with a detectable viral load. The virus attacks the immune system by destroying the CD4+ T cells (which protect the body from infection). In 2023, almost 39m people were living with HIV. Nearly 39m individuals worldwide were HIV positive in 2023. Once infected, there is no complete cure for the virus; hence, eradicating it is impossible. Antiretroviral therapy, or ART, is a more recent treatment option. When taken as directed, it can help people live happy, healthy lives by lowering the blood virus load and preventing transmission. It is an epidemic in the world, and WHO (World Health Organization), the Global Fund and UNAIDS are aligned with the Sustainable Development Goal target of ending the HIV epidemic by 2030.

The first case of AIDS in Nepal was reported in 1988. However, the ART service started in 2004 at Sukraraj Tropical and Infectious Disease Hospital, Kathmandu. ART service is free of charge for people living with HIV in various centers in Nepal. Almost 80 ART sites are present in Nepal to provide free services and control infections. According to UNAIDS 2023 Nepal data, the new HIV infection decreased from 2100 (all age groups) in 2010 to less than 500 in 2022.

Notably, AIDS-related deaths declined from 1,700 in 2010 to less than 500 in 2022. People living with HIV who knew their status were 92 percent, and those who were on treatment were 78 percent. Today, people without HIV can take pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to prevent HIV. It’s a strategy where you can take a daily dose of HIV medication and reduce your risk of getting HIV by 99 percent. Apretude is a new PrEP option that does not need to be taken daily. It is injected every two months to the uninfected partners, significantly reducing the infection.

While we witnessed Covid-19 vaccines being developed within months, creating a vaccine against HIV is challenging due to the unique nature of the virus. The HIV virus mutates rapidly, making it difficult to develop a vaccine that can effectively target all its variations. Almost 250 HIV vaccine trials have been done, but none proved promising. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institute of Health, had launched three mRNA vaccine phase 1 trials. The trial was completed in July 2023. Recently, researchers at the Duke Human Vaccine Institute have successfully induced broadly neutralizing antibodies (which can recognize and block different versions of the virus) against HIV through vaccination for the first time. 

The neutralizing antibodies were produced within weeks, which usually takes years following a natural HIV infection. The phase 1 trial had to be halted due to a non-life-threatening allergy in one of the participants due to additives. Dr Barton F Haynes, director of the Duke Human Vaccine Institute, said, “We are not there yet, but the way is much clearer.” Dr Julie McElrath, the director of the vaccine and infectious disease division at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle, said, “An effective vaccine is the only way to provide long-term immunity against HIV, and that’s what we need.” As of now, there is no vaccine for HIV, and even after 20 years of failure in HIV vaccine development, there is still hope for one.

In March 2024, news about successfully eliminating HIV using CRISPR-Cas gene editing technology (Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 2020) was circulated. 

CRISPR-Cas is an adaptive immune system found in most bacteria and prevents them from infection by viruses and other foreign genetic elements. Functioning like molecular scissors with the supervision of guide RNA (gRNA), CRISPR-Cas9 can cut DNA at assigned spots, which leads to either the deletion of unwanted genes or the addition of new genetic material into an organism’s cell, paving the way for advanced therapy. The research was only able to eliminate HIV from the infected cells in the laboratory and was not done on humans. However, if this technology can be successfully applied to humans, it could potentially provide a cure for HIV. In 2018, Dr He Jiankui announced the birth of two genetically engineered babies (Lulu and Nana) using the CRISPR Cas9 technology to make them HIV-resistant. 

He Jiankui, a professor at the Southern University of Science and Technology, claims to have disabled the gene for HIV entry into healthy cells. Despite the groundbreaking achievement, serious ethical concerns about using CRISPR remain.

We often hear that there’s no cure for HIV, but at the same time, we also hear about cases where people have been cured of HIV or are in long-term remission. These cases usually involve stem cell transplantation, which was initially done to treat cancer. Stem cell transplantation involves replacing the patient’s immune system with a new one that is resistant to HIV. The primary goal of the transplant is not to cure HIV because the procedure is risky and not suitable for everyone. However, it has shown promising results in some cases. Stem cell transplants replace cancerous cells with healthy stem cells responsible for creating blood, bone and muscle cells.

In this process, HIV can go into a latent stage and remain undetectable. A recent study published in the journal ‘Emerging Microbes and Infections’ found that HIV-virus-like particles (HLP) are 100 times more effective for people living with chronic HIV under cART. If this method is successful in clinical trials, it could potentially help millions of people to be free from HIV. HLP are inactivated HIV particles that can boost immune responses without infecting the person.

Despite extensive research, a cure for HIV remains elusive. Laboratories are continuing their research, exploring various methods in hopes of finding a cure. Currently, the primary treatment for HIV is combined antiretroviral therapy (cART), which involves taking a combination of drugs orally daily. While this regimen does not offer a cure, it has proven effective in reducing viral load and maintaining a healthy immune system. According to the most recent data from the World Health Organization (WHO), 76 percent of people living with HIV were accessing antiretroviral therapy in 2022, a significant increase from 27 percent in 2010. Additionally, in 2021, the FDA approved injectable drugs called Cabenuva and Vocabria for HIV treatment. Administered once a month via intramuscular injection, these drugs offer a more convenient alternative to daily oral medication. 

Considering that prevention is better than cure, taking preventive measures at a personal level can also play a crucial role in stopping the transmission of HIV. This can include using internal or external condoms, avoiding needle sharing, avoiding breastfeeding if you are HIV positive, and utilizing post-exposure precautions if you have been exposed to HIV.

The author is working in a virology lab focusing on HIV drug resistance

Amid speculations about New Delhi’s response to Nepal’s new coalition government under KP Sharma Oli, a warm reception extended to Nepal’s Foreign Minister, Arzu Deuba Rana, by the Indian government in Delhi is being perceived as a positive gesture. This visit closely followed Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri’s visit to Nepal, signaling India’s priority in maintaining strong ties with its neighbor. High-level exchanges like these are often seen as manifestations of friendly relations and a growing understanding between the parties involved. Foreign Minister Rana’s India visit underscores the commitment of both nations to strengthening their bilateral relationship.

India’s response to Foreign Minister Rana’s visit has been interpreted differently by various observers. While some have provided subjective analyses, others have attempted to uncover the strategic implications. Regardless, diplomatic interactions like this are open to multiple interpretations. However, those who are trying to narrate a bad story aiming to destabilize bilateral relations, should be overlooked. Conspirators are everywhere, they should be condemned.   

This article aims to highlight Nepal-India relations, particularly in the context of recent high-level exchanges between the neighbors. It will focus on Kathmandu-New Delhi relations through the lens of KP Sharma Oli’s foreign policy and its approach to neighborly relations.

The importance given to Nepal’s Foreign Minister in India is a reflection of the importance given to the new government of Nepal formed under KP Sharma Oli. This gesture also honors the sentiments of the Nepali people. But the gestures should lead to some concrete action, for which we should wait for a few weeks (at least). Prime Minister Modi and his team are aware that Arzu Deuba Rana is the wife of former Prime Minister and a waiting Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba. They also know that Arzu herself is a leader of the Nepali Congress. In that sense,  Delhi’s response to her might have comprised such mixed posture. But, this time as a foreign minister of Nepal, she was perceived as a representative of the government of Nepal and, by extension, Prime Minister Oli. So, there’s a need to be cautious about possible efforts to create misunderstanding within the coalition by misinterpreting the visit.  

During her meetings with Prime Minister Modi, Foreign Minister S Jaishankar, and other Indian officials, Minister Rana raised several key issues. These discussions covered bilateral relations, development cooperation and economic collaboration. It is important to note that this visit was not heavily loaded with agendas but rather aimed at setting a positive tone in bilateral relations at a time when Nepal’s new ruling coalition has just taken charge. 

Minister Rana’s visit has set the tone for further discussions and future high-level visits. This diplomatic engagement also paved the way for an upcoming meeting between Nepal’s Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Such interactions are expected to address and resolve longstanding issues, fostering trust and understanding between the two nations. It should be remembered here that Oli and Modi have been maintaining close contact and sharing thoughts on issues of mutual interest.  

During the visit, Minister Rana formally extended an invitation from Prime Minister Oli to Prime Minister Modi to visit Nepal, to which Modi responded positively, indicating that he will visit Nepal in appropriate time. This development is significant, marking the potential for reciprocal visits between the two leaders.

In building relations, the chemistry of the leaders and approach to the issues are also important. This is where the foreign policy approach of Prime Minister Oli comes in.   

Prime Minister Oli’s foreign policy has been shaped by Nepal’s geographic location between its powerful neighbors, India and China. He has consistently prioritized maintaining a balanced and fair relationship with both countries on the basis of the principle of “sovereign equality.”  His well-known assertion that “countries may vary in size, but all countries are equal in terms of sovereignty” encapsulates a core tenet of Nepal’s foreign policy and continues to guide the nation’s diplomatic engagements. This approach, in  a way, aligns with India’s “Neighborhood First” policy and China’s “Peripheral Diplomacy,” both of which emphasize the importance of fostering good relations with neighboring countries.

Prime Minister Oli has emphasized that Nepal’s strategic location should be viewed as an opportunity for development rather than a challenge. He has also expressed appreciation for India’s leadership in global initiatives, such as campaigning of Global South, demonstrating the alignment of interests between the two nations. Throughout his previous tenures, Prime Minister Oli has remained committed to prioritizing Nepal’s national interest, navigating the complex geopolitical landscape with a focus on fairness and balance. In his fourth term as Prime Minister, Oli has, once again, openly requested both India and China to support Nepal’s development endeavors.  

In conclusion, Prime Minister Oli’s foreign policy approach, centered on the principles of “amity with all” and “enmity with none,” aims to promote peaceful and cooperative relations with all nations. From the land of Gautam Buddha, Prime Minister Oli has called on the global community to embrace peace and non-violence as solutions to global crises. Nepal, with its rich heritage of peace, stands ready to contribute to global efforts in promoting harmony and understanding.

The recent visit of Nepal’s foreign minister to India should be analyzed by considering these factors.  

Views are personal